


What's up kid?

by aparvado



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-01 09:14:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18797383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aparvado/pseuds/aparvado
Summary: NO ENDGAME SPOILERSIt had been 87 hours, 27 cups of coffee, and six attempts from Pepper to break into the lab to force Tony to sleep.Something's up with Peter and maybe Tony can help.Set after Spider-man: Homecoming because I’m not ready to talk about Endgame yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really sure what I'm doing with this. PLEASE leave comments if you want more or suggestions of where you would love this to go. (Sorry for any typos and let me know if something doesn't make sense). Otherwise, enjoy!

It had been 87 hours, 27 cups of coffee, and six attempts from Pepper to break into the lab to force Tony to sleep. 

The only issue was that Tony had 15 projects finished, 18 in progress, and 14 more to go. Of course, this didn’t include the upgrades for his own suit and working out some kinks in the new web shooters he was working on for the kid. 

Needless to say, he wasn’t planning on sleeping any time soon. 

Tony was fully in the zone and blasting ACDC when a voice came through in the lab, 

“Sir, I would recommend a brief nap to avoid injury while working wild such heavy machinery.” Friday inquired, offering advice to an empty ear. Tony just shook his head and continued welding new vibranium arrows for Barton. He thought by switching Barton’s arrows, Widow’s bullets, and even making some custom gauntlets for himself out of vibranium he could strengthen the team against more outer space fuckers or any type of alien tech they encounter. There was really no way of knowing the next time that another giant space portal would open up or some type of wannabe winged villain would try to steal all his shit with alien tech again. He needed to be ready and if that meant a little more coffee and a little less sleep some days then so be it. 

“Sir, Mr. Parker is asking for access to the lab.”

“What th- what the hell happened to being on lockdown, Fri?” Tony huffed out, flipping up his mask and wiping away the sweat. 

“Miss Potts has put in the override codes. She believes that it will be good for you to have some human interaction and a positive influence in your life while you work” He could practically hear the AI smirking. He regrets ever giving her a personality, why can’t he make sentient beings like Siri or even goddamn Alexa. They wouldn’t sass him.

“Fine, fine, let the kid in and turn down the music while you’re at it,” Tony waved his hand around dismissively, silently cursing the AI and maybe Pep while he was at it – but still appreciating the sentiment.

The doors slid open and the usual bustling ball of prepubescent energy that Tony was used to coming through his lab doors seemed to be absent from his protégé. Peter walked in with his hands stuffed deep down in his pockets with his head down and hood up. Tony was initially skeptical about his demeanor but right as he was about to ask the kid if he was alright, his monitor started beeping rapidly, alerting him to yet another thing that caught on fire.

“Ah fuck, Dummy get on that. Please? Just-Ju- fuck! Give it to me idiot!” Tony grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed down the now destroyed set of Window’s spider bites. “Fucking useless little shit…” He whispered under his breath.

Meanwhile, Peter stood, panicked and not knowing how to help. 

“Mr. Stark, oh my god, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to distract you, that’s my fault, I’m sorry!” Peter stumbled over to Tony trying to make sure everything was okay.

“Kid, relax. This happens like 4 times a day at least” Tony reassured him.

"I don’t think that’s, like, safe. At all.”

“Listen bud, these things happen. You set a few things on fire, things explode, you lose a finger or two, it’s all part of the process” 

“That doesn’t sound very productive, Mr. Stark” Peter smirked, taking off his backpack and jacket and dropping them on the couch.

Tony looked up incredulously chucking the fire extinguisher to Peter to catch, “Alright smartass, did you wanna work on your new web shooters or what? Because I can have Friday restrict your access at any time.”

“NO! I mean yes! Wait…yes, I wanna work on the web shooters. No, I don’t want you to restrict my access. Please, I’m sorry I swear I didn’t mean it!” Peter ran over to put the fire extinguisher next to the three empty ones already used in the lab that day, “I just really wanted to increase the tensile strength because I feel like it could be better than it already is and make me feel a little less wobbly when I’m swinging, you know?” 

“Alright, relax Pete. I’m not kicking you out,” Tony said shaking his head.

Peter visibly relaxed, walking over to his personal workstation that Tony created about six months after he began his regular visits to the lab to work on the suits and his web shooters. 

“Under one condition,” Tony began, “You gotta put the coffee pot on for me, cause I’m starting to get the shakes, and I need these hands steady to create perfection.”   
Peter chuckled and waltzed over to the kitchenette area of the lab to brew a fresh pot, “Of course, Mr. Stark. I can’t stand in the way of perfection.” His voice riddled with sarcasm.

“You better watch it kid, you’re on thin ice,” Tony warned, voice serious but eyes bright with something resembling pride, “Keep this up, and I’ll put you in the corner with Dummy to put out the fires and, I’m telling you Pete; I miss the days when you were too scared to ask for a ride home and kept the snark to yourself.”

“Sorry, Mr. Stark. I’ll try to be more professional in your workplace.” Peter laughed and poured out two cups of coffee for both of them to get them through the next few hours. He returned Tony’s workstation, handing him over his coffee – black like he knows he likes it, and returned to his own station where his web shooters were waiting for him. 

“I was planning on improving the second taser web settings because I think I accidentally made them too lethal the first time around and it ends up killing everyone it comes in contact with,” Tony explained to Peter nonchalantly while finishing up with Barton’s arrows.

Peter whipped his head around, “WHAT? Mr. Stark, what if I USED them? And KILLED someone?”

“But you didn’t, so no harm no foul,” Tony pulled up the designed for the web shooters checking over his previous calculations of 100V instead of what should have been around 75V. Maybe the lack of sleep was getting to him.

“But what if I did! We have to fix it, I don’t wanna hurt anyone,” Peter’s voice dipped in volume towards the end of his sentence, his demeanor seeming to return to the way it was when he first entered the lab. He seemed nervous and upset, but also determined to fix the problem.

Tony glanced over at Peter, recognizing his shift in mood, and began walking over to him, trying to calm his nerves. 

“It’s alright, Pete. No one got hurt and everything’s going to be okay. We’ll switch it up and work out some of the kinks and they’ll be good as new, non-lethal web shooters you and all your criminal buddies can enjoy. Right bud?” He pat Peter on that back to offer him some semblance of emotional support. 

They both sat there for a few minutes and when Peter didn’t say anything Tony took the web shooters, grabbed a screwdriver and started playing around with the device. 

“I’m gonna need your help here kid, you’re the only one who knows these web shooters better than me.” Tony attempted a genuine smile to quell Peter’s nerves and waited for a response.

After a few minutes, Peter responded with a sigh, “Yeah…yeah, you’re right. I wanna make sure they’re perfect.”

Hours went by in silence with Peter concentrating on his work and Tony stealing wary glances over to him every now and then. Lost in their work, with only the soft humming of rock music playing in the background, the pair finally completed the upgrades to the web shooters, and Tony gradually migrated over to his own workstation to start on a new design for Widow’s spider bites. Peter moved onto working on his own suit upgrades and the tensile strength of his web shooters, hoping that he could bang out a few improvements before the night was over. Slowly, Peter’s eyes grew heavy and he was desperately fighting to stay awake. Eventually, he lost that battle and ended up with his head on the table and cheek resting against his suit.

Tony was lost in his own world, quietly mumbling to himself about numbers and formulas, finding himself yawning more and more.   
“Gotta get more coffee,” he mumbled to himself, “Hey kid, you wan-”. Tony looked over to find Peter dead asleep with his hands sprawled out on the table and mouth hanging open, soft snores leaving him. He smiled, walking over to the couch and picking up one of his throw blankets. He quietly snuck over to the kid’s workstation and gently placed the blanket over his sleeping lab buddy. 

“Don’t let the bed bugs bite kid.” 

He walked back to his own workstation and settled in for a long night. If he felt a little less lonely because the kid was there with him sleeping soundly, well, he would never admit it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what's happening with Peter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really proofread so let me know about any issues with grammar or even the story. Enjoy!

It all started about a month ago after he was taking down a few local muggers outside of his bodega. There were three large and angry men in shitty pantyhose masks – seriously who even uses those anymore – trying to rob the owner. Peter swopped in kicked some ass and he got out of there quick and fast but not without any marks. At one point, after he thought he webbed up the other two guys, he went to kick one of the dudes that oddly resembled Will Ferrell but got blasted back through the glass window instead. He blacked out for a few seconds and when he came to, one of the goons got loose and was holding a little blaster that was still smoking. For how small the gun seemed, it packed a punch. The gun was dark blue but had an underlying green hue that made it look like it was almost glowing. So, fuck. It was alien tech. 

Peter shot up and tried to disarm the dude with one web shooter while keeping Will Ferrell look alike from reaching for his actual gun using his other arm. Eventually, he got the jump on Will Ferrell, yanking at his webs and catapulting the assailant backward into the street. Once he was down, he focused his full attention on the dude with the alien tech and how he could safely disarm him and take the gun to Mr. Stark so they could diagnose what it was and who’s selling them. But things never worked out so easily for him. Instead, he whipped around just in time to get up close and personal with the tech and get struck by the blaster straight in the face. Only this time, instead of flying through the glass, Peter flew across the street and full body slammed into the side of an apartment complex across the street of the bodega. When his head smacked against the wall it made a sickening crack and Peter was out.

When he woke up, the sun was slowly beginning to rise, and his head was splitting in half. It took him around 20 minutes to even get his bearings and remember what happened. Robbery. Fighting. Alien tech. Once Peter finally was able to get to his feet, the blood rushed to his head and started to swim. He grabbed onto the wall and tried to catch his balance but he slipped and went right back down, slamming his knees onto the concrete. 

“Fuuuuck…” He shuddered and tried to get his breath. “You got this…just gotta…uh shit okay. Deep breathes you’re all good.” Peter got back up for real this time and slowly started stumbling down the street like a drunk idiot at 5 am. Aunt May was going to kill him.

He eventually made it home and found his backpack behind his building, grabbed it, and headed up through his window. Ever since Aunt May found out he was Spider-man, it made it easier to come and go as Peter Parker and his alter ego without much sneaking around. But this day he knew he had to sneak around so Aunt May wouldn’t rip him a new one.

Once he not so graciously fell through his window, he waddled into the bathroom attempting to peel off his suit without irritating his wounds too much. He stepped in front of his mirror, and finally got a good look at the damage. He had burns all on the right side of his face that trailed all down his abdomen and spread to both sides a deep burgundy color with black in some places. He could smell the burning flesh from his abdomen and tried to keep his dinner down. He lightly grazed the burn marks along his face and abdomen, wincing with even the lightest touch. Peter knew that this was something that he couldn’t hide for long so he prayed that with a good night sleep at least his advanced healing would take care of the burns on his face. He hopped in the shower and let the cool water run across his back and stomach, holding tears back from the pain and trying to clean his wounds as best he could. Eventually and painstakingly he turned off the shower and stepped out to dry off and get into pajamas that wouldn’t irritate his burns too much. He crawled into bed feeling defeated and sore, and passed out almost immediately, eternally grateful that he didn’t have school in three hours. 

The next morning Peter felt significantly better albeit still achy and sore. He looked over at the clock and it was after 11 am so he knew Aunt May was at work and he was able to lounge around the house with his fading face burns in peace. He walked over to the bathroom and looked back in the mirror and saw that while his face and abdomen looked significantly better, they both still felt just as sore to the touch as the night before. He shrugged it off as alien tech mumbo jumbo and looked forward to his day of rest and relaxation. He had no idea how long the pain would last but hoped it would go away soon.

News flash: It had been almost two months and the pain still hadn’t lessened. He was void of all signs of burns and even a doctor would say that he is completely fine. But with every sharp movement, a singe of pain would shoot up and down his whole body. He had almost gotten used to the pain at this point and swinging around the city in his suit practically felt like nothing. That is until he laid in his bed at night exhausted and body pulsing in pain so extreme that he would end each day blacking out with tears still in his eyes. 

He knew he should hit up Mr. Stark or at least Dr. Banner, but he knew that because it was alien tech it probably just meant that his wounds would take longer to heal. Right? Regardless, he knew it was fine, all good, okie dokie. So, he was going to be fine and just continue going on as he always had. On the plus side, the last time he had hung out with Mr. Stark, he hadn’t even noticed anything was wrong. 

What Peter didn’t know was Mr. Stark had been monitoring the kid’s suit every day since he’d left his lab. He knew something was up and he had the suit’s AI send him analytics of Peter’s health levels, stress levels, injuries sustained, and even some voice threads when he got really worried. Not worried, concerned…yeah, that. He was just making sure the kid didn’t completely mess up his suit. He didn’t want to spend hours repairing it because the kid decided to be reckless. But also, he may be a little bit worried. It’s not often that the kid passes out at 8 pm in his lab. Or freaks out about hurting someone like he did. Maybe being Spider-man is too much stress for the kid, maybe he’s overtired, maybe he’s hurting in a way that Tony can’t comprehend. All he knows it that his suit analytics have been all over the place and he has to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on in that big spider brain of his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if any of you all have ideas or something you want for the rest of the chapters. I'm just kinda winging it lol. Thanks for your support!!
> 
> Tumblr: aparvado

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: aparvado


End file.
